Der Theatermacher

Josefstädter Strasse 26

1080 Wien

 

Such a sensitive mind

in such a sensitive body.

The actor Bruscon is touring the Austrian provinces with his universal comedy The Wheel of History. Before the guest performance at the "Schwarzer Hirsch" in the small community of Utzbach, he inspects the hall where the performance is to take place. Despite the adverse circumstances—a dilapidated stage, emergency lighting that may not be extinguishable for fire safety reasons, and his family as a talentless ensemble—Bruscon remains convinced of his own genius. In his obsession with the perfect performance, however, reality soon catches up with him.

In Thomas Bernhard's classic The Theater Maker, the demand for complete darkness becomes not only a symbol of the artist's overconfidence, but also a parable for the "hostility to art" and the bureaucratic hurdles in Austrian society. As a metadramatic commentary on the theater scandal surrounding the premiere of Bernhard's The Ignorant and the Madman, in classic Bernhard style, no one escapes ridicule—neither the artist nor society.

(Source: josefstadt.org)